Description

After the end of Euro-American hegemony and the return of the multi-centric world, Eurocentrism in philosophy and the social sciences has come under attack. However, no real alternative has been proposed. This provides an opportunity to reassess the philosophy of the social sciences that has been developed in the West. This book argues that the re-emergence of a multi-centric world allows the Euro-centric social sciences in general, and critical theory in particular, to finally disengage from countless paradoxes and impasses by which they have heretofore been hindered. The author presents a solution in the form of the "kaleidoscopic dialectic." This dialectic is unique in that it is able to overcome the precarious dichotomy between universalism and relativism by relying on an original approach to the philosophy of science. With this approach, the focus is on the configurations embedded in the ethics of understanding, accommodation and learning and on their connections to broader social scientific critique. This book demands that the European social sciences make philosophical and methodological adaptations to the new realities of the social world by becoming more reflexive and, by extension, less Euro-centric.

About the Author

About the Series

The baton of driving the world economy is passing to emerging economies. This is not just an economic change, but a social change, with migration flows changing direction towards surplus economies; a political change, as in the shift from the G7 to G20; and over time, cultural changes. This also means that the problems of emerging societies will increasingly become world problems. This series addresses the growing importance of BRIC (Brazil Russia India China) and rising societies such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, the UAE and Mexico. The term ‘emerging societies’ refers to concerns wider than just emerging markets or emerging powers, taking a kaleidoscopic approach that ranges from political economy, finance, technology and IP to social movements, culture, art and aesthetics. The series focuses on problems generated by emergence such as social inequality, cultural change, media, ethnic and religious strife, ecological constraints, relations with advanced and developing societies, and new regionalism, with a particular interest in addressing debates and social reflexivity in emerging societies.